Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

a wider specification allows the influence of contextual factors to be felt more strongly,
resulting in gradient or contingent instantiations of certain features or processes. In the
case of devoicing and glottalization, it has been necessary to distinguish even complete
lack of a specified target or gesture from the presence of such a target, however variable
in implementation. In the case of phonetic underspecification (whether we mean
complete lack of a specified target, as with passive devoicing, or only having a broad
target window, like gradient), the realization of the feature or features in question will be
to some extent automatically interpolated, either as a function of the realization of other
features (e.g. duration), or as transitions between two specified points along a continuum
of potential targets for the same feature (i.e. pitch). Importantly though, both are tokens
of the same phonetic feature, broadly conceived. A partially or completely underspecified
realization results in a broad continuum of potential degrees of instantiation of a
particular feature, while a narrowly specified feature singles out a small portion of that
continuum of possible realizations as optimal. In the case of the phonologizations above,
however, the specified and underspecified variants are instances of two completely
distinct types from an articulatory point of view (in that the gestures needed to make
them are largely mutually incompatible). If our phonetic component contains
representations of acoustic features or properties, of course, then the problem is more
tractable; both types of glottalization can be represented in acoustic terms according to
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